Sophie & Howl
by GrandLadyMother
Summary: Life for the residents of the Jenkins' castle is a quarrelsome, but pleasant one. Sophie is pregnant with Howl's son, Morgan, and Howl has sworn off magic? What will happen when something dangerous gets in the way of this happiness because of Howl? R
1. Prologue

_No matter what happens, hold onto me and it'll be alright. I'll never let you down, because that's not how my heart works. You will always be the light in my life, and you will always be my savior._

_Do not forget what it means to be free, because it was your own freedom that deemed mine. Do not forget what it means to love, for it was your own heart that saved mine from my vanity._

_Live, laugh, love; for that's what you have brought to me. The power of a wizard is great, but your power over this wizard is forever greater than that._

_You can raise me to the skies by holding out your hand. You can sooth me with just the sound of your voice. Hold onto me tightly, because I will never, never let you go._


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

In Which Suliman Is Attacked And Howl Is Summoned

_"Sophie was only a girl when I met her, and I had never met anyone like her before. Whatever the situation, she came up with a logical situation for a solution. She is level-headed and smart, offering a sarcastic remark for any occasion. She is very strong-minded for a woman, but if she weren't our spats would not be as enjoyable as they are. Perhaps I am placing her atop a pedestal, as I have come to care for her greatly, and my views of her have become biassed. I prefer not to think like that, however, and pretend that my dream of her is as true as the truth. But from me, the truth is rarely true. _

_Wizard as I am, I never knew that a heart, stolen by a star, could open so widely to another mortal being, but my heart is clutched to her. It has taken on its own life and she is the owner of that life. I remember other girls, but never have I felt this way about any of them. I would flirt with them to pass the days, and indulge in their company whenever I could. There was a time when my apprentice, a small boy of nine, Markl, was hardly an apprentice at all. I saw him so little, there was no teaching him, between the girls and running from my own self. But she came, and drew me back. To the house I hated because of its walls and doors, because its conformity to humanity. She drew me back to that cage where I was a bird, wings clipped._

_Do not missunderstand._

_I never felt trapped around her. She never has caged me. But I crave freedom, the way I crave oxygen. A wizard can not have freedom, not true freedom. There will always be someone following you, tracking you, threatening you. To leave meant to be free, of my castle, my inhibitions, and myself as a wizard. But she made me want to come home. She made me __**want**__ to stay where I knew there was a trick to hurt me. I followed her to Sulliman and I obeyed her when she said that she was going to be with me from then on._

_I do not know if she loves me, the way I am, but I love her and if it means to be a trapped bird all my life, I'll stay by her side. Forever."_

"Howl?!" a voice called up the stairs to the surprise of Howell Jenkins, who had been writing in a sort of diary at the interruption. He jumped, banging his knees on the underside of his writing desk that sat before a window that looked out on a yard. In it sat a boy on a swing, playing with a dog childishly. His hair was messy in its brown tuft on his head. His large, brown eyes accented his face well as they brightened when he laughed. The dog leaped on him and licked his face. Letting out a groan, Howl fell off of his chair, holding his knees in pain. His black hair fell over his face, as he pulled his pant legs up to inspect a growing, purple bruise on either knee.

"Ow." he said blandly as he poked them, knowing that it was better to patt them out while they were fresh. They wouldn't hurt when touched later if he did.

"Howl?" he turned slightly as Sophie stepped into the room. She wore a pale pink dress that accented her hair, grey from a curse once put on her to age her, well. Her brown eyes were curious as she cocked her head at him. "You're on the floor." she said softly and he blinked at her, grinning tenderly.

"I hit my knees." he said, pointing to his bruised legs, with a sheepish laugh. She gasped and hurried forward, sinking beside him on the hard-wood floor. She inspected his knees as he had, patting and poking them carefully as she tried to figure out if he'd be alright, though he was sure he'd live. "You shouldn't be on the floor." he said after long and she glanced at him. His eyes travelled down to where her belly was bulged, just enough to be noticeable, with child. Even so, she still could take his breath away with a glance. She flicked her hair slightly and returned to the bruises.

"I'm fine, don't worry so much." she smiled as she said this and he reached to touch her hair, twisting it around his fingers lightly as to not let it pull.

"How can you be so cold?" he chuckled and she turned on him, her investigation of his injuries finished, and kissed him gently.

"Practice." she joked. "It comes with being the wife of a vain man, you grow used to being the cold one." he pouted at her and she took his face in her hands. "Come now, you should expect me to give you a hard time. Without your magic you're as harmless as a kitten." he hung his arms around her waist, laughing richly and leaning back against the wall beside his desk. She smiled down at him from on her knees between his outstretched legs.

"Harmless, eh?" he asked and she laughed this time, nodding. After a moment her smile fell and she cocked her head at him once more, looking at him seriously now.

"Are you sure you don't want to use your magic?" she asked. "After having it so long, it's almost become routine-" he hushed her with a finger to the lips and hung his head, laying his cheek against her stomach.

"No, Sophie." he said softly, thinking on what trouble magic had caused in the past. The war, Sulliman, his being hunted. "No more magic." he said tenderly, closing his eyes and she stared down at him gently. Bending slightly, she laid her own head against his shoulder.

"Where is Wizard Howl?" a deep voice growled and Wizard Suliman, a man in his fourties greying a little in his red beard and hair, stared up at the Hargath that had him by his throat with one of its long, greasy, talloned hands. It might have looked almost troll-like with a boorish nose, bulged and round in the middle of its squashed face, except that it's skin was not really skin at all. It took the shape of skin, but it was black as pitch and sticky like tar. It was a wonder why the creature could stand, as fluid as it seemed.

"Oh, god!" Lettie, Suliman's wife, Sophie's sister, cried from the doorway of Ben's private study. Suliman could not look at her, but he imagined her face, fearful under the dark of her locks.

"Get out, Lettie!" he barked at her and imagined her stepping into the room further as he heard her utter in protest.

"But...Ben-" she tried and he couldn't help but raise his voice at her. It was not something he rather liked to do to any woman, especially her, but he needed her safe. He needed her to go.

"GET OUT!" he barked and the Hargath's grip tightened on his throat. Lettie might have let out a terrified wail, he couldn't be sure. But her voice returned a moment later in an indistinct jumble of words. When her voice stopped, he was dropped, and lifted his head quickly to see the creature rearing back, screaming. It held its face in it's grimy claws as large, boils rose on his body. Or, it might have been his nose multiplying everywhere, Suliman wasn't sure, he hadn't heard the spell that Lettie had read. Lettie! Turning around furiously, he found her standing near the door, looking pale and frightened, clutching one of his spellbooks in her trembling hands. The only thing keeping her from bursting into tears, might have been the Hargath still present and the possibility that she may have to read another spell.

"This isn't over, wizard!" the Hargath hissed, causing Ben to turn, before it seemed to desipate, as Hargath's often could, into thin air. Ben knew it as a transporting power common to the species.

Lettie fell now, dropping to her knees, her arms going limp and her hands releasing the book. Leaving it to lay face-down on the floor before her. Her eyes were large as they turned on him and she looked down at her trembling hands. They came up then, as a surge of emotion caught her, and covered her face while she began to cry. Ben Suliman smiled now and cleared the distance between them in two strides, sitting beside her on the floor. She hugged him as he opened his arms for her and sobbed against him. Holding onto her tightly, he stroked her hair tenderly.

"It's alright." he said softly.

"I didn't know what to do." she bawled, pulling away to stare him in the face. "I was so scared, and I didn't know what the spell did. I just, oh Ben, I had to do something. He had you-" he hushed her and hugged her once more.

"It's alright." he repeated before something in his brain went off and he pulled away from her. "But it won't be for long, Lettie, dear." he said and rose, making his way across the dirtied study which the Hargath had done plenty of damage to. She sat still on the floor for a minute, watching him pace as he thought.

"What do you mean, Ben?" she asked and he turned his gentle eye on his wife. His face was lined with worry and the shadows proved his age.

"If the Hargath's are looking for Howl, then something more dangerous is too." he said in thought and Lettie blinked, rising now and rushing to him, taking his arm in her hands worriedly.

"What are you saying, Ben?" she asked in a nervous tone. He touched her hand and removed it from his arm, taking hold of her shoulders then and holding her still.

"I'm saying that Hargath's are vicious, but pretty dull. They aren't known to seek anything as they don't have the brains to plan it out. It also doesn't seem likely that one would have quarrel with any human, wizard or not, this far north. They're native to the southern regions, darling." he said simply and Lettie grew pale again, the color just having returned to her cheeks.

"But the castle, it's in four places, isn't it?" she asked and Ben nodded.

"Yes, that's true, but I doubt, with as little quarrel that has been since Howl assumed the position of Royal Wizard, that Howl has moved the portals. Which means that they are still in the Wastes, Kingsbury, Market Chipping, and Sophie's garden." he concluded and Lettie looked as if she might fall. "I am sure they're fine, Lettie, dear, no need to get yourself into a fit." he said tenderly and she nodded slowly, her eyes glazed slightly. He knew her mind was still on her sister and Howl's possible danger, and let his own mind wander as well, turning to a looking-glass he rarely used that sat in the middle of the room.

"No! No! No!" Sophie screamed at the top of her lungs as she struggled to get it through her husbands thick scull that she meant 'NO'. Howl sighed at her.

"It's not a choice, Sophie-girl." he said simply and reached for the coat she was mangling in her hands. He was afraid that if it were him, she'd be even more mercilous than she was. The coat was a plum one that matched the pants he wore and contrasted the yellow of his vest well. His hair was dark even against it and the color lit his blue eyes. "It's called being summoned, there's no choice in the matter." She yanked the coat out of his reach and wrang it viciously as if it were a wet cloth.

"That isn't fair!" she cried, and he sighed once more. Walking past the fireplace and Calcifer that sat between them, he took hold of Sophie's shoulders gently and hugged her from behind.

"I'll be back the day after tomorrow." he said gently and she shoved off of him. Glaring at him for a minute, she stormed off and up the stairs, throwing his jacket onto the floor as she did. Her footsteps fell hard, as she was obviously trying to make a point with her foul temper. Once the footfalls receeded, Howl flinched as he heard the bedroom door slam behind her. There was no use following her upstairs to resolve anything after that, he knew her well enough to know she'd have locked herself in.

"What's going on?" Markl, the boy from the window, peeked in holding Heen, the dog, in his arms. The two had become inseperable since Heen's arrival and even Sophie, who could usually persuade Markl into any sort of situation, could not convince him to let the dog alone. All she need do was batt her eyes at him and spoke in her soft, motherly way and he was convinced that the dog should sleep on the floor rather than in his bed every night. Heen didn't seem to mind so long as he was warm and dry.

"Nothing worth worrying over." the wizard said, mentally cursing his wife for arousing the boy's suspicions, and reached to pick up his jacket. Complaining loudly about the wrinkles in the plum fabric, to be sure Sophie heard him from her self-created prison of their room. Calcifer was low under his logs, knowing full well what kind of wrath was to beheld when the wizard was gone and his witch wife, hormonal nonetheless, was left to rampage. "I'll be going now." Howl tried calling up the stairs but heard nothing from the bedroom that might have signalled that she would be in any mood to see him off.

"You've really done it, she'll be in a fit all day." the fire demon whined at his former master. Howl gave him a glance and turned from the stairs, in as foul of moods as Sophie was. He crossed the room easily, walking in his proud way, and as he passed Markl, he touched the boy's head in the fatherly way he did from time to time. The child's brown eyes stared up at him in silence and he offered a small smile to him in a vain attempt to ease his worries.

"Take care of her, eh?" he asked and the boy blinked before giving a _very _serious nod. Calcifer, not enjoying the thought of being ignored, let out a series of loud crackles and even coughed the way some fires do. The fire demon's nettled behavior cause Howl to remember the time and he pulled from Markl as the boy continued to stand beside the hearth holding Heen in his arms.

He returned to the conversation at hand.

"Then I'll come home to a spic and span castle." he said simply and a voice behind him startled him.

"What am I, a maid?!" it was Sophie, she had crept her way down after all to say goodbye. Howl blinked at her, feeling himself want to spontaniously swallow his tongue. She turned on him now, more viciously and angrily than he had seen her since the slime incident a while back. "I will NOT be cleaning this castle, Howell Jenkins, today or any other day forevermore until this child is born." Howl felt his eyes roll at this and immediately regretted it. The action was just so routine with their spats that it was automatic. It made her angrier. "I am **not** a walking incubater, I am** not **a maid, **I am your wife!** And if you leave out that door today, damnation, I am going to lock you out of this castle!" she cried and Howl felt the urge to laugh. She was being unreasonable. He sighed and turned his back on her, smoothing out the wrinkles in his jacket with a run of his hand over it. "Howl!" she cried and he turned his eyes on her. They were colder and glassier than the had been since the days he'd been heartless.

"I don't have a choice, Sophie." he said gravely and stepped down the stairs that led to the door. Turning the knob, a turn-wheel above the door spun as well. It landed on a yellow glob that, like all 3 of the others, seemed to have been thrown there in haste. As he moved to open the door a pair of arms circled his mid-drift and he turned to hold Sophie likewise, as it was her hugging him.

"Come home to me safe." she mumbled against his chest and Howl laughed now, mostly out of pride.

"Who do you think you're talking to? Of course I'll come home, there isn't a man alive who can best me, Sophie, dear." she blinked at him and smacked her brow in frustration.

"You vain sonova-" she began but Howl hushed her with a kiss and tipped his hat, which had previously been sitting on the table near the stairs, before stepping out. Sophie's hands clenched into fists and she let out an exasperated yell. "Close!" she yelled at every window in the castle. "Close and lock yourselves before I take an iron to you!" she snapped. All windows and shutters promptly closed to Calcifer's dismay as he peaked up from under his logs. This wouldn't end well. It never did when Sophie locked Howl out of the castle.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

In Which Something Attacks The Castle

"SAVE ME!" Calcifer cried to Markl as Sophie sat on her hands and knees, scrubbing the grate that he sat in after Howl had gone. When she tossed a bucket of water onto the stone slab, the fire-demon screamed and clung desperately to a cinder he held high above his head on his two, thin, arm-like flames.

"Sophie!" Markl cried and a moment later the little fire demon was dangling, by the cinder, from a pair of tongs the boy had taken up. The fire demon turned his orange head at her, staring at her in horror for a second before he screwed his eyes and glared at her outright while Markl put him in the coal bucket with a log or two.

"You were going to smother me!" Calicfer cried as Sophie continued her ridiculously thorough cleaning of his grate. "You actually tried to put me out! You heartless witch! How could you?!" Calcifer cried once she had it shining and had patted it dry with a rag.

"Oh, be quiet!" she snapped but he didn't hush, he carried on and on and bellyached for a moment or two before finally growling at her.

"I am not speaking to you." he said and Markl sighed at both of their childishness.

"Fine, be that way!" Sophie huffed and threw her scrub brush into the bucket, still by the hearth and stamped her way to the broom cuppboard for a broom or two to help her clean the main room. She could be heard grumbling the entire way about both Calcifer and Howl.

"You do understand, don't you, that even if you are mad at Howl, killing me won't kill him anymore, I don't have his heart." she looked at him guiltily and touched her cheek as if she had been slapped across the face. He blinked at her and felt a little pang of guilt of his own. Fire demons weren't known for their sensitivity, but the look that rested on her face was so forlorn that he couldn't help it. He knew she'd never try to kill either of them, she'd never meant to smother him either, he was just angry. And his tongue had a tendency to be sharp when he was so.

"Sophie..?" Markl tried and that seemed to break whatever was holding her to the floor and she rose. Her knees were shaking as she did so and she held onto the wall as if she thought she might fall without the contact. She said nothing, instead staring at the two of them like a hurt animal.

"Sophie, I didn't mean-" Calcifer began but when her eyes turned on him he was forced to clam up because of the guilt nagging at him once again.

Releasing the wall, she tiptoed for a second before she broke out into a run, skidding right past them and into the bathroom. Both fire demon and apprentice flinched when they heard her get sick.

"Yuck." they said in unison, exchanging glances before Markl followed after her to help in any way he could. Calcifer simply sat in the coal bucket, making crackles and hisses of disconcert, as he watched the brooms that Sophie had been getting sweep dully in her absence.

"I see." the king said stiffly as Howl stood before him, looking suave in a deep, purple suit. "So you've decided to retire?" he asked warily and Howl simply nodded. His bony face was emotionless as he stared at the king. The man, small on his high thrown with a very round face that sat on his thin body like a pumpkin on a stick, sighed at him.

"Yes." Howl answered at last as it was soon very clear that the king wanted a verbal answer and not simply a silent one. He sat very still, looking the wizard over critically, as if he wasn't sure quite what to make of the situation. Howl just stood before him, his jaw very clenched, holding onto his hat tightly. And the king simply sat there, staring back.

"May I ask the reason for this sudden withdrawal?" he asked after long and Howl gave a low bow. His dark-haired head went down and his eyes closed in it.

"I apologize, your majesty." he said softly and anyone who knew Howl knew he was gagging in his subconscious. "I only think that the position would be better served by another wizard, a better wizard." he said and even he knew it was bull. Howl was the best wizard in Ingary. Even Suliman couldn't best him, but he was also known to tell little truth, unless it was to Sophie. Because then, there was often an enchanted broom or chair there to get the truth from him.

"You're serious about this." the king said quietly and Howl looked up, locking their eyes and nodding seriously. Coward as he was, he knew how to keep his calm when necessary. The king sighed again and ran his hand over his stubbled chin, closing his eyes in angst. "I supposed, then, that there is no point in requesting you for your assistance in the creation of an airship. Howl said nothing, he did nothing except standing straight, keeping his blues locked on the man sitting before him. "Very well." was his answer after a moment's silence.

"I guess I'll be home earlier than I thought." Howl said to himself as he walked through Kingsbury. At the thought he remembered the spat from earlier that morning and almost froze in his tracks. Sophie was not likely to have forgiven him yet, and the thought of sleeping on the couch in his own castle had no appeal whatsoever. Smacking his hand to his forehead he groaned, that is, until he heard a familiar voice calling his name.

"Howl!" he turned to see it was Lettie scurrying, in the same manner as her sister, toward him with Suliman in tow. He nodded to them both as they reached him and Lettie grinned, gasping in her breaths. "I thought it was you!" she beamed at him and for a minute Howl looked at her wondering, vaguely, why he hadn't fallen in love with her as pretty as she was. Shrugging it off he glanced at Ben when he took Lettie's arm tenderly while she carried on. "What are you doing in Kingsbury, I thought for sure that Sophie would have you helping her clean." she panted out a chuckle and Howl grinned at her.

"I was summoned by the king." he said. "We had a bit of an argument over it." Lettie rolled her eyes as if to say 'Of course' and Ben tugged on her arm.

"Lettie, dear, we were going somewhere, do you remember?" he asked and from the shade of her blush Howl had a feeling he **really **didn't want to know. Still, Suliman stepped into the conversation here, speaking very lightly.

"Lettie's been a little tender since this morning." he explained and as Howl began to nod, Lettie cut in, as strong-minded as her sister was, which for her was rather out of character.

"I am **not** tender!" she snapped and Suliman patted her arm.

"Easy, now, my love." he said softly and Howl nearly grinned as the incident almost reminded him of Sophie. Lettie waved a hand and, as Howl was getting lost in his own thoughts, drew him back with a few choice words.

"...After being attacked this morning..." he caught no more of the sentence as he snapped to attention at once.

"Were you attacked?" he asked and Lettie turned her eyes on him. Blinking, she nodded and blinked her brown eyes.

"Ben was." she said and Suliman sighed tiredly as if he had been trying to forget the whole ordeal. Howl caught this and understood it easily, it was something he did himself, usually when Sophie asked him to help her clean something.

"I'd best be going. Sophie's likely to have locked me out again." he sighed and Lettie laughed.

"The spat was really that terrible?" she asked and Howl shook his head.

"She's just so unreasonable!" he found himself exasperated while Ben and Lettie laughed. "If she HAS locked me out, I think I'll have a fit of my own." Lettie laughed at this as he carried on. "She's like a walking, talking bomb!" he sighed. They both knew he meant none of what he was saying. Her strong-mindedness complimented his cowardly nature and he could not live without her, regardless of her temperment when pregnant.

"Really now?" Lettie asked and glanced at Ben as Howl complained for a minute or two longer. Then their goodbyes were said and the three separated, Lettie and Ben heading one way while Howl strolled another.

Calcifer sat in his grate, grateful for the evening and the calm brought with it. Sophie sat sewing in a chair before him, Markl having gone to bed hours ago.

"You look tired." the fire demon said somewhere after the clock in the corner whirled it's 1000 hands back and forth and sideways and up. The clock was an oddity Howl had gotten some years ago, too small to hold a portal as it was just a mantle-clock. The wizard hadn't thought of what the 1000 hands could be for, since the face had no signs, and even if it had, there was no way to see the time anyway with the way the hands moved constantly. He and Calcifer had decided that it ws for show and set it in the corner on a shelf, all but ignoring it from then on.

Sophie didn't answer him, she didn't even look up from her sewing as he crackled under his logs, waiting for her to speak. When she didn't, he tried again. "Aw, Sophie, I didn't mean it. You know I didn't mean it." he whined and she raised her brown eyes at last, but when she did he wished she'd kept them lowered. The look she was giving him was dark and cold. He gurgled at it, knowing he deserved her wrath. She said nothing instead returning to her sewing as he sighed dramatically. He was about to remark again when he bolted up from under his logs. "Sophie!" he cried but she ignored him for a minute. "Sophie, somethings got hold of the castle!" the fire demon hissed and rose and flamed wildly, out of fear, against the chimney.

"What?" she asked quickly and he looked at her with his small, green-flame eyes bulging. As they both fell silent, they heard it. A vulgar, loud scrape, like nails on a chalkboard. A moment later there was a swift jerk and Sophie was knocked sideways into the table while Calcifer rolled with his logs, bobbing nervously as they hit the wall and he stared at the wall. "What is it?!" Sophie begged an answer from him but he shook as a man might shake his head.

"I couldn't see it." he said as she remembered that he couldn't, in fact, see outside very well. He could see, if anything, magic in the way that someone held it. For instance, the Witch of The Waste and Howl he could see remarkably well, but when it came to other things, there were patches and blurs but nothing else. In general, the fire demon could see outside well enough to keep the castle going straight.

"Sophie?!" the two downstairs turned to see Markl, scrambling down a wobbly set of stairs toward them. Sophie gasped in herself and ran, grabbing at him as the plaster above the stairs crumbled just a little, not used to this kind of abuse. She jerked him into her arms, and both of them fell sideways as the castle jerked once more. Sophie landed hard on the floor with Markl laying on top of her. As the plaster shook again she rolled with him under the table, bracing herself over him and holding him tightly, covering his head.

"My god, do something!" she screamed, over the blood pumping in her ears, at Calcifer who looked perplexedly at her now.

"What do you want me to do?! I can't see it!" he bellowed, rising up in an angry flame. Another scraping noise deafened the room for a moment and another jerk sent the table's contents scattering on the floor. Just then the doorknob shook and the turn-wheel above it spun so fast that the 4 colors blurred into one, muddy brown.

"Oh, dear god." Sophie gasped softly as she held Markl ever tighter. Then Calcifer roared at her, half out of his own fear.

"It's the Kingsbury door! Kingsbury Door!" she blinked at this and suddenly remembered she'd locked it, thus the spinning turn-wheel.

"Open it!" she cried and Calcifer looked at her as if she were crazy.

"I can't!" he yelled. "You locked it!" she blinked and looked at the door, remembering that she had locked Howl out that morning.

"Open! Unlock, damnation, before this castle is torn apart!" she screamed from under the table and the door obliged, the turn-wheel ceased spinning and rolled easily to the blue blob that marked the Kingsbury door. Open came the door and in walked Howl, looking concerned and curious all at once. Calcifer didn't even spare him a moment to explain, instead slamming the door and screaming at Sophie again.

"LOCK IT!" she nodded and screamed as loud as she possibly could.

"Lock back up! LOCK! Please, I'm begging!" she cried and the door obeyed once more, slamming behind Howl and the turn-wheel returning to it's random and hieratic spinning, moving back and forth wildly.

"What's-?" Howl began but was knocked off of his feet by another jerk of the castle. He landed on his bottom, back against the hearth as the room tipped sideways and the table slid an inch or two. Sophie blinked at it and turned her browns on the wizard, sitting parallel to her, against the hearth. If it hit him, he'd be killed.

"Somethings got the castle!" Calcifer bellowed and Howl's eyes widened. Disregarding the table, and the argument to come of it later, Howl climbed to his feet. Running on his long legs, he bounded across the room and dove under the table as well, grabbing a book from the other side of it. Opening it, he wildly flipped page after page until he found what he was looking for, a small paragraph written in Welsh. As he muttered the spell, his voice was drowned by the crack of thunder and the castle fell still. No one moved at first, and when they did it was Calcifer, rising up against the wall, trying his hardest to see what had happened to the previous attacker.

"What was it?" Sophie asked almost timidly and Howl looked at her, then. She was pale, holding Markl tightly in her arms as she crouched beside him. Markl was peaking out of her arms, as curious as she was to know what had just happened. Howl sighed, panting as his body relaxed and he laid completely on the floor.

"It was a Hargath." he answered but Calcifer let out a cry then and they all turned to look at him.

"It wasn't!" he exclaimed. "I can see Hargath's! That was NOT a Hargath!" he screamed and Markl offered another possibility.

"Was it a Djinn?" he asked and Howl shook his head lightly against the floor before he answered in a muffled tone.

"Djinn's, good or evil, don't attack wizards. They find it boring." he said, though he knew this wasn't completely true. Still, Sophie looked peaking already, no need to send her into further of a fit.

"I don't care what it was!" she snapped, catching all of their attention. Howl raised his head to look at her. "Can we just get out from under the table?" she asked, causing both Howl and Markl to laugh, half out of relief.


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

In Which Sophie Has A Problem With Staying In Bed

Markl was the first out from under the table, scurrying to return a complaining Calcifer to the grate with the tongs. Sophie did not move at first, instead simply laying there, on her side, under the table. She was pale and looked right to be sick until Howl scooted close to her. She seemed to have forgotten ever being angry with him because she wrapped her arms around him and held onto him tightly, saying nothing. He sighed out of relief and laid his head on hers as Heen, who had slept through the entire ordeal in the little nook under the stairs, barked noisily instead of his usual rasping. Markl, after situating Calcifer, hurried to calm the dog, picking him up gently.

Sophie moved away after a minute and Howl had a feeling she'd been fighting off crying as her face was red and his shirt was damp. Saying nothing of it, he heaved himself out from under the table and vaulted over it, kneeling to help her up when he reached her. She took his hands with her trembling ones and crawled from under the oak table. She rose and hugged him again, her shoulders shaking. Howl couldn't help but smile at her and stroked her hair tenderly.

Neither said anything for a long time and when Sophie did speak she pulled away from her husband, wiping her face with a hand.

"I'm going to take a bath." she said simply and he nodded, watching her go. "Heat some water, please Calcifer?" the fire demon went to protest but she looked at him weakly and he shut his little, purple mouth and shifted his eyes away as she moved to go up the stairs. When she was out of sight, Howl sank into a chair tiredly as Markl watched him, with Calcifer, holding Heen tightly.

"Hell's teeth." the wizard muttered under his breath as Calcifer crackled and poped softly on the hearth. When Sophie returned downstairs, having bathed and changed into a blue dress, he glanced at her. She was walking somewhat stiffly, holding her back.

"Oh, hell." she sighed as she reached the bottom of the stairs and she bent slightly, her grip on her back tightening as she grabbed the banister.

"What is it?" Calcifer asked and Howl interjected.

"Didn't kick the tub and have it kick you back, did you?" he was joking, of course. It had only been once when the tub had kicked anyone with it's claw-footed legs and it had been Markl who'd made it mad. Of course, Sophie had cleaned the bathroom before hand and had been talking the way she always did to things. Needless to say she'd charmed it, the way she could the shutters and the door.

"Oh, hush, you!" she snapped at him and slid her arm along her side, breathing in sharply. Howl, blinking at her, stood now, crossing the room. He took her elbow and led her to a chair, setting her into it neatly.

"Easy now." he said gently and turned to Markl, still standing in the corner with Heen in his arms. "Fetch Mrs. Fairfax, Markl, will you?" he said in a commanding voice and the boy nodded, all but dropping heen, and scurrying to the broomcloset to gather a cloak. Howl turned his attention back on Sophie who was bent slightly in her chair, her hand back on her back, the other gripping the arm of the chair.

Markl had returned not fifteen minutes later with Mrs. Fairfax in tow. The woman was in her fifties, with a kind, round face and golden locks that curled around it in a delicate way. Howl often joked, to a good, swift kick from Sophie, that had she been twenty-some-odd years younger, he'd have courted her and never married Sophie at all. The woman was also Lettie's tutor, having taught her to be a witch since she was 17.

Thus, Lettie and Ben Suliman followed her in as the two women had been visiting when Markl had burst through the door. All of them wearing night shirts or gowns.

"Good heavens, what's happened around here?" Ben asked as Lettie rushed right past him and to Sophie, who Howl had moved to the guest-bed. Howl was standing in the doorway, which faced the broom cupboard and the door at once, and was nearly knocked over when Lettie bustled past him and into the room where her sister lay in the bed. Sophie, being as stubborn as she was, was struggling, between bouts of discomfort, against a spell Howl had put down to keep her in bed. Every time she would go to getup, somehow she always managed to be on her back again, groaning in dismay. She could throw back the covers but in the moment she used to swing her legs over the edge, the blanket and sheet would be wound around her knees once more. After long it tired her and she was resigned to complaining.

"Oh, Sophie, are you alright?" Lettie squeaked in her shrill way as Markl made it to the other side of the bed and Howl stepped from the increasingly crowding room into the main room. Mrs. Fairfax tutted past him now as Ben nodded to him.

"Looks like a whirlwind's been through here." he said and Howl shrugged.

"Sophie's given up on the cleaning." he joked but Sophie took him seriously and was yelling from beyond the door that Mrs Fairfax had just shut, once Markl had been nudged out.

"Ah, so the castle was attacked, then?" Ben asked as Howl and Markl and Calcifer together explained the happenings of the afternoon. When all three of them gave a similar nod, Suliman bit his nail. He looked as if he were concentrating hard on something.

"Shaken, more or less." Howl sighed as he lifted his feet for Sophie's brooms to brush past him, cleaning the room busily as their regular owner could not. Markl nodded in agreement, gripping the back of Howl's chair as he was pushed aside by the dustpan as it chased after the brooms.

"That's not good." Wizard Suliman said, half out of thought and Howl blinked, remembering the attack on Ben only that morning. His blue eyes widened slightly and Ben caught this, seeming to understand his thought. "It was a Hargath, wasn't it?" he asked and Howl went to nod as Calcifer fired up in his grate.

"It wasn't I tell you!" he cried as the guest-room door opened and out filed Mrs. Fairfax and Lettie helping Sophie walk tenderly.

"What's the diagnosis, doc?" Howl asked and Mrs. Fairfax glanced at him as she slid from Sophie's grasp, trusting Lettie to take her the rest of the way upstairs.

"She took a spill, it seems." she said simply. "A few pulled muscles and an angry baby is all, I'm afraid." she laughed as Howl basked in the relief that filled him. Markl made a noise to the side and he turned his head to see the boy had turned a right shade of pink and was shifting on his feet.

"It's my fault she fell." he said obediantly, his eyes resting on the floor. "I was on the stairs and she came to get me when the castle shook." he said guiltily. "It was an accident, but-" Howl touched his head then, quieting him as he flinched, almost like he was sure he'd get a good smack for causing trouble.

"Don't be silly." the wizard said simply and gave him a shove toward the stairs, past Mrs. Fairfax. "Why don't you go see how our old girl is doing." he said and Markl blinked, smiling as he nodded, obviously relieved that Howl wasn't angry. Once he was gone, Heen following him up the stairs the way dogs followed children, Howl returned to the conversation at hand. "You said you were attacked this morning, didn't you? When we met in the square?" he asked and Suliman nodded, his eyes looking glazed.

"It was a Hargath, looking for you." he said and looked around. "For this place." he said and Mrs. Fairfax stepped forward, wringing her hands.

"That won't do." she said stiffly. "Sophie's a good, strong girl, I know, but taking spills left and right won't do-" she began but Howl raised a hand blandly. His sleeve waved in its elegant way, the plum fabric sparkling a little in the dim firelight.

"No need, Mrs. Fairfax." he said simply. "I have thought of this. My resignation was given today, I am no longer to be Royal Wizard to the king." his words echoed in the room as three jaws figuratively dropped. After a few dry, word grasping moments, Ben finally spoke in a low tone.

"Does Sophie know about this, did you discuss it?" he asked and Howl gave a nod.

"Yes, what kind of a fool do you think I am? That woman's temper has gotten rather foul durring these past few months, why would I _purposely_ envoke it?" he asked stiffly and this seemed to satisfy both wizard and witch alike. Fire demons on the other hand...

"You said you were summoned!" Calcifer barked and Howl turned to him now.

"Oh, I was. The king wanted me to help him build an airship using magic." he said and turned back to his company. Calcifer hushed after this and it wasn't long before Lettie came down the stairs, satisfied that Sophie was situated.

As it was late and none of them wanted to impose on staying the night when they lived only walking distance away, Lettie, Suliman, and Mrs. Fairfax spared minutes for goodbye and then were gone, Lettie promising to be back in the morning to see after Sophie again.

The weeks to follow were hectic as Sophie carried on with her unreasonable way of thinking, hopping from happy to sad to mad to hurt to every feeling in between. Howl hardly had time to keep up as he and Calcifer, without Sophie's knowledge as not to cause her any _more_ stress, tried to work out what might have attacked the castle. And, more importantly, how to stave it off.

On particular morning, Sophie was on her feet again, 6 months pregnant if not more, washing dishes as sitting Idle irritated her to no end. Howl had not reported to the king again, which Sophie found odd as glad as she was to have him home. He would go out to the garden once in a while, and often worked on spells for other customers of theirs, but no letters or summons had come and it caused Sophie uneasiness which, in turn, caused her to clean all that much more furiously.

"You'll wear a hole in it if you scrub it any harder." Calcifer called, leaning out of his grate to watch her. The house was empty save for the two of them, Howl having taken Markl to the garden with him on a private study session. It was something that the boy enjoyed fully and so Sophie had had no heart to ask Howl to stay with her. The little fire jumped sharply when she threw it into the sink gruffly and it broke against the basin. "Don't break them!" he squeaked and she turned on him.

"I wouldn't if you'd just shut that mouth of yours!" she cried and he shrank back as she glared at him. After a minute she sighed and hung her head, and he leaned back out to see if she had given up on arguing. She had. "I'm sorry, Clacifer." she mumbled after a minute and he blinked his green eyes at her. "I just...I don't know why I'm getting like this." she said softly and Calcifer flinched, knowing the tears were coming. They always did.

Just then the castle jerked once more and Calcifer let out a cry.

"It's back!" he squeaked and Sophie blinked, trying to think of what he might mean until her mind snapped to the incident weeks back. Her heart leaped into her mouth for a moment, but she scowled and shoved it down. There was no use getting scared, she told herself and before she knew it she was headed across the rocking castle. Calcifer fired up in his grate.

"What do you think you are doing?" he barked and dodged a bit of plaster as it rained down on his orange head. Sophie had reached the door by now and had a hand on the knob, bracing herself on the wall.

"You can't see it, right? So maybe I can!" she cried and turned the knob. Calcifer cried out to her again.

"DON'T!" he screamed, and she looked back at him. "We're going as fast as I can and I can't stop, if you fall! You'll get hurt, I know you will! Sophie!" she wasn't listening to him. Instead she twisted the knob as hard as she could and the turn-table wound itself around as well, resting on the green blob. "Someone stop her! STOP, YOU CRAZY WITCH!!" he screamed from the grate, but it was too late. Sophie had the door open and leaned out easily to see what was there.


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

In Which Sophie Comes Face To Face With A Creature With No Face

Calcifer jerked to a stop, and Sophie had to grab hold of the doorframe to keep from pitching right onto the grass of the Waste. She had barely eased herself onto the back stoop, with its bent iron rail and shakey boards when she saw it.

Whatever 'it' was.

It towered over her, taller than the castle itself. The fact that it _was_ so tall, and did not spread across the wastes or into star-lake, was a wonder to her as it seemed to be made of nothing more than syrupy goop.

She stared at it in wonder, unsure of whether or not she should be afraid of something so odd. It rose slightly and raised what looked to be an arm to twist what might have been its head at her.

A rough rock of the castle told Sophie that it had been caught by the monstrosity before her.

"Sophie! Get back in here, Sophie! Hey!" Calcifer was hissing from the grate, but the grey-haired female ignored him, hopping onto the grass and darting off. Calcifer probably did not like this as as soon as she was a few yards from the door, the castle rocked and swayed and strained against the creature holding it. The gears ground and the bricks heaved and the mouth opened and closed viciously as the monster looked from it, under a sticky, dripping grip, to Sophie. She was standing square with it now, looking up at it.

The scenery behind it was blurred, but visible as the thing was almost perfectly see-through. But the fact that it was so only proved its size when she realized that she could see almost nothing clearly. It had, actually, run somewhat, and was almost engulfing the castle in it's gloppy, viscous hold.

"What on earth are you?!" she found herself asking it, unsure of what else to do. She had no spell-book, she had no broom, she had nothing to defend herself. Really, a very stupid move seeing as this thing looked like it could swallow her whole and leave her floating around in its goo for eternity.

It moved. Sophie braced herself as a long, stringy arm-or what seemed to be such-reached toward her, dripping and glopping and oozing on itself and the ground. One particularly large gob hit the ground before her feet and Sophie blinked, covering her mouth and nose when the substance killed the grass with a loud hiss and wafted the scent of rotten eggs into the air. She nearly gagged on it and looked up at the monstrosity once more, the sudden gravity of its reaching for her hitting her full-force.

It must have forgotten about the castle, because out of the corner of her eye she spied it break free. Her heart started to pound as she began to question if she could make it around the thing before her and into the castle before it caught her. She wasn't sure how thick its head was, so the possibility of it's reaction time being swifter than her own weighed on her.

The baby gave her a hard kick in the ribs and she suddenly did not care for the 'ifs'. Breaking out into a run she tried one way, and then another when the creature's reaching tentacle swooped into her path. It reached for her again, like a cat playing with a mouse, only this time it was not so swift when Sophie made a U-turn. Skittering around on the grass, she ducked under another, taffy-like arm as it swung at her, and found she had a clear shot to the castle.

Glancing over her shoulder, she spied the creature turning it's faceless head to look at her, turning in a slow way to reach after her once more. A scream bottled in her chest, but she refused to let it out, grabbing at the rail as she found Calcifer steering the castle before her. It was running, full-force on its skinny, bird-like legs and heaving, groaning, moaning, and scraping loudly in her ears.

"C-Calcifer, I can't-" she began and he slowed before she finished, and she caught the rail, hopping onto the creaking boards of the stoop. Upon landing on her feet, something caught her leg and heaved, trying to draw her back. She let out a short cry, her mind wrapping around the sense of the flesh of her ankle being burned, and kicked desperately at the syrupy confines of the creature's grasp.

"Let her go!" Calcifer cried and abruptly the castle bent over Howl's wife. Through the door, Sophie could see the little fire demon puff up his face and screw his eyes shut before a hiss and a screech caught her ears. Turning her head a little fearfully, she spied one of the chimneys shooting sparks and ash at Sophie's captor. The grasp on her leg retreated and Sophie leaped through the door, slamming it shut behind her. Sprinting up the stairs and away from it, she sank into the chair by the hearth as Calcifer raised his head. "Are you alright?" he asked and she blinked at him dumbly before nodding. For the most part, she was fine.

"Is it gone?" she asked, her voice coming out in a tremble and she realized that it was her body, not her voice, that was shaking. Calcifer was still for a moment, listening intently.

"I think so..." he mumbled and leaned out of the grate at her. "I told you not to go outside." he said sternly. Just what she needed, an 'I Told You So' to add the insult to her injury. She sighed as she brought her leg up onto the hearth to inspect her ankle. It had, indeed, been burned. And pretty badly at the look of it. Her stocking had shriveled and pulled up to her knee, still smoking. The leather of the top of her boot had been blistered beyond repair and her ankle itself was the color of an egg-plant. It looked like it was merely bruised, in a perfect ring about her ankle, but it seered when touched and was even hotter than Calcifer felt beside her.

"Hush." she insisted as she pulled the remains of her boot and stocking off before climbing, tenderly, to her feet. She lifted her skirt so that it would not touch her seered flesh and tip-toed to the bathroom. It only took her a few minutes to fill the tub with cold water and find the burn medication on the shelves above the sink.

She set it on the sink as she pulled her skirt up higher and stepped into the tub. The water could have been acid and Sophie would not have known the difference. Letting out a scream, she tore her foot from the liquid and wrapped it in a towel on the nearby bar.

"What happened?!" Calcifer sounded frantic as Sophie hobbled back into the main room, one of her brooms aiding as a crutch, hopping along with her of its own free will. It eased her into the chair by the hearth once more and hopped back to the cupboard from which it had been summoned. "Are you alright?"

His eyes rolled toward her and eyed the towel, still swathed around her foot. After a few minutes of silence and breathing, Sophie peeled it back with a wince.

The purple burn had turned the color of Howl's mauve suit, splotched with big, grey patches. They both breathed in at once, Sophie hissing through her teeth as the air hit the tender skin.

The door opened then and the two turned their heads to see Howl leading Markl through the garden door. They both looked like they had spent more time fishing than anything else, Markl carrying a large trout in both arms while Howl had three or four smaller ones on a string in his hand. After everything that had happened to Sophie that day, the fact that they seemed so carefree felt almost unfair.

"Hello? What's this?" Howl asked lightly, not sounding the least bit interested. Sophie scowled at him as Markl set his fish beside the sink to investigate.

"What happened?" Markl asked, sounding pained as he stared at the infliction on Sophie's leg. The grey-haired woman ran a hand over his face lightly, wiping at the dirt there.

"Got burned." she said simply and Markl leaned over her ankle further, curious as how it had gotten to be such a peculiar shape and color.

"How?" he asked and Calcifer butted in, loudly.

"SHE WOULDN'T STAY INSIDE!" he cried and she scowled at him as Howl came back into the room, having returned from putting his coat away. His voice dripped with sarcasm.

"What was outside, Sophie? A new broom and bucket? A can of white-wash? You haven't gone on another cleaning-spree have you?" he asked and peered around the room as he spoke, checking for the spiders that he had instructed her to leave be where they were building their webs and nests in the nooks, cranies, and corners of the room and ceiling. Sophie scowled deeper at him as Calcifer piped up again. What he said made her wish she had a bucket of water to douse him in.

"That monster was back!" the little fire cried, ducking under his logs as he had caught the look in Sophies eye. "She went outside to get a look at it!" his voice was muffled this last time as it came from under his logs and Sophie fought the urge to turn and glare at him. This seemed to catch Howl's attention and he came around Sophie's side, having been standing at her back, to inspect her injury as well.

His eyes widened as he looked at it and he knelt, taking her ankle in his hands before either Calcifer or Sophie could tell him not to. The product was not quite enjoyable. Sophie screamed bloody murder and kicked her husband, rather hard, in the jaw.

Howl to reel back in a slew of cuss words because of this and Sophie to jerk her ankle onto the chair, under her skirt. Her reaction reminded her, vaguly, of Lettie when she had cut her heel as a child and didn't want to show it to Sophie herself. This had partly been because she had been in the neighbor-lady's garden and had stepped on a thick, thorned rose bush.

"Let me have a look." Howl barked, angry despite himself and Sophie frowned even deeper, extracting her leg from under her skirt and holding out to rest on the hearth. Howl did not touch the burn again, instead just looking at it, cocking his head this way and that. Once or twice he asked Sophie to turn her ankle for him, which she did with a lot of wincing and hissing on her part.

"What burned it?" Sophie asked curiously, despite her pain. Howl glanced at her with his very blue eyes before returning them to the injury.

"Magic." he said lightly and Calcifer reared his head now.

"It was not!" he yelled and Howl silenced him with a look.

"I'm not very sure about it, Sophie." he said at last as he took hold of her heel very carefully. "We'll have to take you by Sulliman's house tomorrow." Sophie almost cringed. Granted, she had no qualms against seeing her sister, or her sisters husband, but the fact that they were going to him as a doctor. It urked her just a little.

"Kingsbury door!" Calcifer cried out and the little family blinked at him in confusion for a moment. This confuusion dissapated after a moment when a heavy knock was heard. It sounded more like pounding and Sophie was unable to move to get it. This was mostly due to the fact that Howl still had a firm grip on her foot. He released it after a second, but motioned for her to stay sitting before heading for the door.

Sophie disliked the idea of sitting, so she stood anyway, following the wizard to the stairs. When the door opened, there stood Lettie, pale and frantic. She wore her nightgown, her brown hair wild and flailing in the wind outside. Her eyes were enormous and scared as they set on Howl for a moment before they flashed to Sophie. She shoved past him before he let her in and darted up the stairs, grabbing at her elder sisters hand.

"It's horrible! It's simply horrible!" she squeaked, seemingly unable to get anything else out. Sophie, on her tender ankle, guided her younger sister to a chair and set her down, sitting with her on the hearth. Lettie's hands gripped at a shawl on her shoulders as if they had nothing else to do. Her eyes fixed on her knees for a minute before Sophie touched one of them.

"What happened?" she asked her sister very softly as Howl reached the top of the stairs. Lettie blinked her large, brown eyes and turned them upon Sophie. Fat tears had begun their way down her cheeks now as she struggled with herself. She was shaking.

"Th-there was...we were attacked!" she whimpered, her lip trembling the way it always had when she was upset. This was no joke, Lettie was frightened, and Sophie knew how deeply. "Ben's gone, Sophie!" fresh tears escaped her as she released her shawl and took Sophie's hands in her trembling own. "He's been kidnapped!"


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Which Involves A Good Deal Of Quarrel

Howl looked at Sophie. Sophie looked at Calcifer. Calcifer turned his bobbing, red head toward Markl, and Markl looked back at Howl. In the center of these glances sat Lettie, looking from Sophie to Howl to Markl to Calcifer frantically.

"Damnation." Howl hissed and turned on his long legs to lope around the room in a steady pacing. Sophie watched him from her perch on the Hearth and Calcifer flickered, popping in nervousness. The black-haired man walked quickly and had the room circled four times before Lettie let out a cry.

"Oh, dear, Sophie! What happened to your ankle?" she was blatently ignored as the rest of the castle's residents were busy watching Howl pace. His feet clacked the wooden floor with their heels. Both his hair and the sleeves of his shirt billowed around him somewhat as he made distance again and again between himself, the stairs to the door, and the nook under the staircase.

"What attacked you?" Howl asked her none too gently. Lettie blinked at him dumbly for a minute and then squeezed her sister's hand tightly.

"I don't know what it was." she mumbled and Sophie's mind turned back to that afternoon. To the creature that had attacked the castle and, in turn, her. She was beginning to wonder if it might have been the same beast when she heard Lettie say something about going to look for Ben. A big, red X came to the fore-front of Sophie's mind at her sister's words. There was no way any of them were going to go out right then to find him, especially not Lettie. She was in such a state of worry. besides, none of them had a clue where to start looking. Hungary was not a very small country, and if Wizard Sulliman was no longer in Hungary, then...

"We can't do anything tonight, can we?" Sophie asked, glancing out the window and noting how fast it had gotten so late. It seemed only moments ago that she had been outside, investigating that faceless creature. Howl glanced at her with his blue eyes.

"Don't be daft!" he laughed at her sarcastically. He was almost cruel. She scowled at him and stood, tenderly because of her ankle sending pin-pricks through her leg. Had she not been hurt, she probably would have stomped all the way up the stairs. Instead, she bipassed him and grabbed the banister to ascend to the room they shared.

Upon reaching the landing, she heard Howl excuse himself and his two-inch heels clopped up the stairs after her.

"You are doing something!" she hissed in exasperation as he reached her. She leaned back against the balcony door and stared at him as he crossed his arms.

"I am not! Something like this is far to scary." he insisted and she crossed her arms, cocking her head, decifering his antics as she had grown used to doing.

"Are you telling me this because you're lying to yourself so that you think you aren't going to do it when you really are. Or are you telling me this just to be an ass?" she asked very plainly. He smiled crookedly at her.

"What do you think?" he asked slyly, hoping to neutralize her temper. On the contrary, she crossed her arms ever tighter and glowered at him coldly.

"I think you're a stupid, old cad." she sniffed and he frowned.

"I am not old!" he insisted and rolled his eyes at her when she turned away and retreated into the bedroom.

Sophie was not in any better of a mood the next morning as Howl discovered when he awoke to find one of his favorite suits in pieces. All of the seams had been ripped out. Frowning at it, he sighed and ran his fingers along the seams, threading them back together with magic. True, he had told Sophie that he was giving it up, but with Sulliman gone, he was sure to be needing it if his pregnant, disagreeable wife expected him to have _any_ chance of rescuing him.

Oh, how he missed the days of bachelorism. When he could go out and drink and avoid all of this danger business without so much as a care in the world. When it wasn't so easy for him to be pinned to something. With Sophie, though he loved her dearly, he found himself-very often-in a net.

"You're up." she said lightly, as if it were somewhat of a surprise to her. She was standing, injured ankle and all, over Calcifer, frying eggs in stern silence. Markl and Lettie were across the room, at the table, far from the older female's dark cloud of anger.

"Did you think you killed me?" Howl asked boredly, his own mood not being up to snuff, thanks to the harm she had done to his suit. At his words, she looked at him, her dark eyes fierce beneath her bangs. Had she the power, Howl had the feeling he would have been a frog thrice over and shoved into a bottle to suffocate. Of course, Sophie would never kill him. A good throttle might come his way now and again, but she would never do anything to seriously hurt her husband. She loved the vain-as-a-peacock man too much.

"If only it was as easy." she said sourly, her hand on her back as she swung the pan off of Calcifer and at Howl. He lurched back so that she passed him with it and wondered if that had been done on purpose as she dished breakfast onto plates. Lettie declined any sort of food and Howl noticed that she worried in a similar way as her sister. She sat and sat with nothing to do but bite her nails, until Sophie gave her a bit of mending to do. Turned out she was not as deft with a needle as her elder sister, and took almost an hour patching a pair of Markl's trousers.

Sophie gave Calcifer her breakfast which he enjoyed in a remarkably loud manner. Slurping and cracking and hissing in enjoyment at the bacon, eggs, and bread. Howl sat down in his usual place near the hearth so that he could slip Calcifer food when Sophie was not looking as always. She, in turn, set a plate down, hard, before him. The smack made by the glass on the wood resounded for what felt like a long time.

"What a foul mood you have today." he observed softly and she all but glared at him, taking back the plate and throwing it onto the hearth. Calcifer dodged it, though it would not hurt him if it hit, and ducked low under his logs at the argument that was brewing. Throwing down the rest of the plates in their respectful places on the table, Sophie tromped right around and headed for the bathroom. "Oh, no, you don't-" the wizard cried and was up out of his chair quickly.

If she made it to the bathroom, he would never get into it again, so long as her temperment kept up.

Sophie was already in a run for the staircase and Howl cussed as he darted after her. The two of them shoved and squabbled up the stairs like a set of children. Yelling, crying, pulling hair, biting, yanking pants, tugging skirts, pushing, shoving, elbowing, kneeing, tripping, and the like was the scene all the way up the stairs and onto the landing. Markl and Lettie watched the pair of them curiously as they did this. Calcifer called insults up at the two still racing dirty.

In the end, Howl shoved Sophie rather forcefully into the balcony door, across from the bathroom. She hit it with her back and gasped in, bending forward. This caused Howl to take into account what he had done and, kind-hearted as he was, went to her side.

"It's mine!" Sophie cried once she was sure he was beside her and shoved off of the wall. Vaulting across the hall, catching her husband off-guard, she turned and shut the door, locking it, verbally, behind her as she began to laugh.

"You're heartless! Do you hear?!" Howl barked through the door, hitting it with his hand. He couldn't undo Sophie's charm either, so he was forced to retreat to the bedroom until she came out, sick of his ignorance of her trick.

"You do mean to find Ben, don't you Howl?" Sophie asked at last when the ordeal was over and done with and the two were in their bedroom, Sophie cleaning while Howl fussed over his spiders. Howl frowned as he set his blue eyes on her. She looked at the broom in her hand then, unable to keep his glance.

"I don't." he said and she sighed at his game.

"If it were anyone but Lettie and Ben, then you could keep your tricks to yourself and I wouldn't open my mouth over it. But Howl," she lifted her head and the black-haired male flinched as he spied the tears in her brown eyes, "it's my sister." Howl sighed and reached for her. She came toward the desk and he stood, wiping at her eyes with his thumbs.

"Of course I mean to." he said softly. "It's not easy being a coward, you know." this last bit was a joke and Sophie laughed at it half-heartedly. Shaking her head, she pulled away from him, rubbing her eyes with her sleeves and muttering something about returning to her cleaning.

"You'll tell us how to get to wizard Howl." several small, imp-like creatures hissed in unison as they tugged on the binds that held Ben Sulliman. The red-headed man simply glared at them. imps were not particularly powerful creatures, but they were mischeivous and liked to cause harm, malicious and not, wherever they could. Therefore, when the elder wizard said nothing to them over their demand.

"Ignoring them will make angry them." a female voice said in a hiss and Ben's ragged eyes turned on the figure that was overseeing the whole ordeal. She sat in a high-backed chair, her long, pitch hair draping around her like a curtain against her back. She wore long, feathery robes of yellow that made her equally golden eyes very piercing. She was lithe and bent in such a way that the cat-like ears upon her head looked very seductive. "It's best you give them what they want."

Her voice was high and childish, but she was mature. At least to be the age of 18.

Sulliman just glared at her.

"Come now, what're you looking at me like that for?" she asked and shifted into a more cat-like position. "It isn't my fault you won't talk." she insisted and crawled from the chair, prancing toward him and bending over him. "Just tell them what they want, then Kiri's job will be done and Kiri can let you go, yes I will."

"Go to hell." Ben snapped at her and Kiri stood up as if appalled by the words. She covered her mouth.

"Such language. speaking to Kiri like that. Won't due, no it won't!" she insisted and turned as the heavy door of the cell opened and a figure stepped into the room. He was small, the size of a child, and wore a hood over his face.

"Has he said anything?" the boy's voice was low and fluid. Kiri shook her head.

"Wizard Sulliman will only curse at me." she insisted, her own childish voice ringing off of the walls of the stone cell. The figure nodded lightly and motioned for her to come to him.

"Let us go, then." he said and Kiri bounded to his side.

"What will we do?" she asked, glancing back at the older male on the floor across the room. The imps had retreated away from him, bowing in the dark recesses of the corners to the boy that had come in.

"You'll go this time." he said, causing her to blink. Pointing at herself as if she did not understand him, she cocked her head.

"Kiri will go?" she asked and the boy nodded.

"Use that woman if you have to, the one that Vanetha could not capture." Kiri blinked her honey-hue eyes and nodded after a second. Glancing back at the imps as they continued to recede further and further into the shadows, she turned one of her ears toward Sulliman again.

"What shall I do about him, then?" she asked curiously and the boy snickered, his mouth coming into light when the rest of his face did not.

"Leave him here. Without his magic, he's about as threatening as a wet kitten." Kiri giggled and nodded, shooting Wizard Sulliman a cool glance before following her master out and closing the door on him.


End file.
